Organisations

THE Art Fund have appointed Dr Stephen Deuchar, currently the director of Tate Britain and chairman of the 2009 Turner Prize, as its new director, with effect from January 4 2010.

CLIVE Stewart-Lockhart of Dreweatts handed over the chairmanship of the Society of Fine Art Auctioneers to Paul Viney of Woolley & Wallis at the Society’s biennial dinner at the Royal Thames Yacht Club in London last week.

LAPADA’s year-long search for their object of the year ended at Olympia on June 9 when the prize was awarded to Mayfair dealer Adrian Alan, who submitted this magnificent Grand Bureau by François Linke.

THERE were notable sales in the first hour of the two fairs which opened at Olympia in West London last Thursday.

BRITISH Art Market Federation chairman Anthony Browne is fighting a rearguard action against the unexpected news that the Export Licensing Unit is to move to Birmingham.

EBAY UK have launched a new anti-counterfeit campaign and want to work closely with the antiques industry to beat the fakers.

DMG Antiques Fairs, organisers of four of the biggest antiques and collectors’ fairs in the UK, have been sold by their parent company.

EBAY have now added a London High Court victory against a claim from luxury brand L’Oréal to the one they gained in France last month.

THE Antiquarian Booksellers Association (ABA) has stepped up its efforts to recover books stolen by its former president, David Slade, from Sir Evelyn de Rothschild.

THE tide has turned in favour of eBay in the legal war over the sale of counterfeit goods on their site after a French court backed them against L’Oreal.

ATG Media have launched an award to find the Best Auctioneer on the Internet.

TWO former senior executives of dmg World Media have bought the three American SOFA fairs and the Charlotte, North Carolina showground fair from their former company.

The Arts Council have reported that over £10.5m worth of arts and crafts sales have been generated by its Own Art programme since the scheme's April 2004 launch.

eBay are to introduce a new dispute-resolution process in America that includes the offer of a toll-free telephone number to discuss problems verbally with Ebay customer support.

Six months after the most significant hallmarking deception case in living memory, the Assay Office has published a guide detailing many of the Peter Ashley-Russell fakes and forgeries. The document is available to download for free at www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk/assayoffice

COSMETICS giant L’Oréal took their multi-pronged legal tussle with online auction site eBay to the High Court in London last week.

THE annual survey from LAPADA, the UK’s largest art and antique dealer association, shows a largely stable market compared with the previous year, but with one or two significant changes.

A FORMER president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association has admitted stealing dozens of books from Sir Evelyn de Rothschild valued at a total of around £230,000.

ATG Media have launched their bid to replace eBay as the primary provider of live online auctions. There have been several companies jockeying for position since the demise of eBay Live Auctions at the end of last year, but ATG Media, who also own Antiques Trade Gazette, argue that their new partnership scheme offers the best deal.

Readers are being urged to be aware of a new batch of counterfeit Troika wares that are being offered for sale on eBay.